BREAKING NEWS

Responding to UN greenhouse gas report, Peretz slams budget cuts

After the United Nations World Meteorological Organization unveiled on Wednesday that the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2012, Environmental Minister Amir Peretz slammed Israeli finance officials for nixing the country's greenhouse gas emissions reduction program from the national budget this spring.
"There is report after report about the dangers and damages caused by man to nature, but in the recent budget discussions budgets for coping with these hazards were cut to almost complete deletion," Peretz said. "Unfortunately, the issue has been sidelined until the absolute cancellation of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction program in Israel."
Stressing that he has fought and continues to fight against these cuts, Peretz stressed that the Environmental Protection Ministry promotes energy efficiency and pollution prevention projects. Just this week, the minister decided that an inter-ministerial committee to address climate change will be created at the lead of Environmental Protection Ministry director-general David Lefler.
"This is a burning and dangerous subject that constitutes a threat to all of us, and therefore, we must act before an environmental and social catastrophe occurs," Peretz said.